Do you have a stress story to tell?

[dinsa]

hi
i m wrting an article on workplace stress. if you have had any incidents that were a major cause of workplace stress, please recount. i may even quote you if the story is good.
i will need stories related to the following types of stress:
1. strainful relationships with colleages
2.job dissatisfaction
3.demands of the job
4. too much competition
5. family tensions which reduce productivity at work

thanks
dinsa

 

[Heather]

do you have a stress story to tell?

I was working in a child care centre and I was the trained worker and the other worker was untrained but had been there for a while. Anyway because I was the trained worker I am the one in trouble for if anything goes wrong in the room basically and there were a number of things that needed to be fixed up so I sppoke to the other worker and they refused to help so I went about fixing the things myself and some of the things they changed back (for example table in a traffic area etc...) and said that that was how it had been for years and how dare I go and change it only being new. There were many other things that I tried to fix as this was why I was employed someone with training and also new blood because sometimes if you have been there for a long time you over look safety concerns. Then they started to get quite rude and yelled at me in front of children and parents and even though I tried to talk in private they continued with this behaviour and yelling at me in front of others and so after the boss did nothing I left the workplace and got a job somewhere else in the same role but a lot less stress.

 

[Philos]

do you have a stress story to tell?

Hi dinsa,

I was working as an estimator for a big national comany. There was a rumour that there would be some redundancies. As I was the union treasurer I guessed I would be one of them. Announcements were due on Friday.

I went into my boss on Thursday and said that I expected to be one of the redundancies. He said that he didn't know. I asked him if he would wait until closing time before calling me in, to save me a little stress if it was going to be me, and some embarrassment in front of my colleagues. He said he would do this.

Friday came, and in the afternoon people were called in one by one. It got to five minutes to closing and my colleagues started to congratulate me that I was not made redundant.

Then the section manager (who was universally disliked by the staff) called my name out in a loud voice, for me to go in. So the boss hadn't stuck to the agreement. I hesitated for a while, and went in. Two minutes later I was back out of the bosses office, picked up my personal belongings and walked straight out, past everyone. This was the only expression of my anger that I had left. A couple of guys said that they would phone me, and then I was out in the street. I never made eye contact with the section manager. I knew that I had asked for some special treatment from my boss, but I still felt overwhelmed by the situation. It was the false hope that had got to me, and the way the section manager had enjoyed it.

Later I met my wife and we went out somewhere. I felt like there was an electric charge going through my body, as if I was plugged in to the mains. I am still haunted by the pleasure in the section managers voice when he told me to go in to the bosses office, like he finally had me where he wanted me.

I never worked in a full time job again, but went back to university and took a couple of degrees, then a bit of part time teaching. I sometimes go past the site of the company, which folded soon after I had been made redundant. Even the buildings have gone, and it is now a supermarket.

A funny thing - My wife and I had a bit of luck, and we have moved house to a very expensive area. We are now living next door to one of the ex directors of that national company, and he recently invited us round for drinks (not knowing who I was). He continued working in the industry, retires this year and had had three heart attacks in 12 months. Life does make some odd turns!

Cheers, M

PS - Our neighbour still doesn't know who I was, and what does it matter now?